HELL WEEK

To say this was a bad week would be an understatement! It started off pretty good Monday morning. I woke feeling well rested, chipper and even had 2 bingos in my Scrabble games. That was the ONLY thing that went right this week. When I got to work, Monday, I followed my normal routine - power up the PC while unlocking my desk -- oops, no desk keys in my purse. Dump out my purse and search again - still no keys. I must have put them in my pocket when I left Friday. Knowing there are "mate" drawers in another cubicle, I searched the office for the duplicate drawers with the matching keys. I found one and was relieved I would be able to access the payroll and injury files that were locked in my desk. This was a "payroll" Monday and I needed access to the files in order to process the payroll.

After I completed the payroll, I continued the search for the keys to my other set of drawers. You see, that set of drawers has things like the keys to the petty cash drawer and my boss' office as well as all the items needed to make a daily deposit. After a very lengthy search, still no keys and I gave up looking at the office.

When I arrived at home, I immediately searched the clothing I wore on Friday, for my keys. Ooops, still no keys to be found. At that point I turned the hamper upside down and started an extremely lengthy search of my apartment and car, which also included contacting places I had been on Sunday to see if anyone found keys. I can only guess these keys have disappeared into some vortex, never to be seen again.

Tuesday arrives and now I'm trying to break into my desk. One day of not doing a deposit might get by the auditor, two days is going to raise a flag and we'll probably get "dinged" on it. Add to these thoughts, the task of printing and assembling a 30 page presentation with MAJOR network response time problems. What should have taken me about an hour complete, took FOUR hours to complete. In the meantime, I'm watching the clock tick away knowing this had to be done for a 1:00 pm meeting. Trust me, there were plenty of 4-letter words happening at my desk. As I leave for the night, I gave the OPS Manager permission to break into my desk with a pry bar.

I arrived home and there was a message from my landlord waiting for me. He would be over Wednesday to complete some work in the cellar AND show the units to a realtor. This is the first he has even hinted to me, that he is selling the building. Of course, I knew he had plans to sell because my neighbor told me about it, a few months ago. After the long day at work, I find myself trying to get the apt. cleaned & vacuumed for the "tour".

Wednesday and it's day 3 without keys. I'm in panic mode!! Still no keys and apparently the OPS Manager thought I was joking because the drawers are still locked. Then I hear a very familiar voice ---- our maintenance person, Vance, has returned from Indiana! I'M SAVED!! Vance can get into anything!! I won't ask where he learned it but he picked the lock and had my drawer open in 5 minutes!!! Something has finally gone right with the week! Now I can concentrate on fun things like finding out why we were charged for 4 ice cream carts instead of 2 and creating a shopping list for the cookout planned for Thursday.

Thursday arrives and it's cookout day. This is the week we celebrate "Employee Appreciation" all week. While I do the ordering and planning, management gets to do the cooking and setting up. Unfortunately, only one management person is around to set up and cook, so I ended up assisting him with the task of getting everything set up. I did leave him to do all the cooking. My main concern was hauling food outside as it was needed. Apparently the 3rd shift employees decided to help themselves, overnight, to the deli salads. Oh well, when it came time for their cookout, they won't have any deli salads.

Finally, it's time for home! The place looks pretty good, my landlord decided to mow the law AND he did all the trim. Gee, he also had an exterminator enter the apartment (without my knowledge) to spray for termites. I wasn't too happy about that but my neighbor was even less happy. She came home to find her doors wide open and the exterminator in her cellar. One problem we have both been having is with fleas in the cellar. On a good note, she asked the exterminator about what he was spraying, it will kill fleas too!

It's Friday!! My desk is unlocked. I can do all my work. There are no events planned for Employee Appreciation -- it should be a peaceful day. Yeah right! Since my boss was doing the cooking for the off shifts on Thursday, he wouldn't be at work until about Noon. One of our sales reps stopped by my desk to see when the boss would be in. I chatted with the rep for a few minutes and he went back to his desk. Less than 30 minutes had passed when I received an e-mail from my boss, marked "URGENT". It simply stated "Have "sales rep's name" IT security disabled, immediately! This was the same person that had been at my desk. Not knowing what had taken place, I did as I was told and submitted the form. I then called the person that handles the security and made certain she knew it was to be done immediately and not in a few hours.

Of course, I had to find out the scoop on what happened so I went straight to HR. That's when I found out the sales rep. went to the District Office, turned in his keys to company car, credit card and cell phone, then he quit. All this without any explanations or good-byes. Apparently my boss headed into the office right after he had been called and sent me the urgent e-mail. He asked me to contact this person to find out the passcode for this cell phone voice mail. I called and left a message for him to contacting me with the information. Can you guess how he contacted me? Using his VPN access to his work e-mail --- the SOB in IT hadn't removed his access like I had requested. Again, I'm on the phone with her and this time I'm not a happy person. He has had over two hours of access to pricing, customer lists, rate quotes.... I'm certain he knew he was going to quit, long before he did and could have gotten this information any time. However, the IT person didn't know he quit, for all she knew he could have been fired.

It was a rather sad day at the office. Everyone like the person that quit and we walked around in shock over the way he quit. Later in the afternoon, we had took another blow to our sales department. The District Sales Manager was offered District Sales in Atlanta and he accepted the position.

Thank God the week is over! I stopped at J&G's for a quick Happy Hour and headed home to relax. When I drove in I saw my landlord finally trashed the old picnic table and did more clean up in the yard. Upon entering the apartment, I discoved my back door was wide open and of course my air conditioner was running. Ok, so he had also entered the apartment. This time I'm pissed. I don't mind that he needs to enter the apartment -- just tell me. And for God's sakes, close the door when the A/C is running! For all I know, that door had been open all day and I'm the one that gets to pay for his stupidity.

Maybe 30 minutes after I got home, my landlord shows up. He FINALLY actually tells me the building is going on the market next week. The realtor will be placing a lockbox on our doors and will contact us prior to showing the building. He wants me to air out the apartment this weekend because it smells musty. Screw him! It's going to be 95 degrees and humid - I am not turning off the A/C just to suit him. He also wanted to know why I didn't tell him the cellar window was broken. Gee, his carpenter broke the window and Debbie told him twice, when she called. I called and there was no answer or voice mail to tell him about it. Needless to say, I'm not happy with my landlord right now.

The time has finally come to start packing and looking for a new place to live. More than likely, a new owner will have a higher mortgage and increase the rent. I refuse to pay more than I'm already paying, for this place. There is also a good chance another owner will want to live in the apartment and rent the other apartment. Mine is the larger of the 2 apartments and they would probably want this one. The new owner would only need to give me a 30-day notice to vacate the apartment. If I start packing and looking now, it gives me more time to find something suitable for my needs.